Beijing, China, February 10, 2022: It was a sad day – the end of a great Olympic champion.
Japan’s Ice Prince, Yuzuru Hanyu, lost his crown in the men’s figure skating and with it the chance to complete a golden hat trick of Olympic titles following his victories at Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018.
His chances were already slim following an eighth-place finish in the short programme on Tuesday – and any possibility of an unlikely comeback were dashed on his very first jump in his free skate on Thursday.
The 27-year-old Japanese superstar was attempting to perform a quadruple Axel for the first time. It would take a super-human to pull it off – a forward jump that requires four and a half rotations in the air.
The crowd held its breath; Hanyu revved his engine and took off – but fell on landing. It was not to be, and the disappointment within the Capital Indoor Stadium could be felt around the arena.
When Hanyu stumbled again shortly after, the crowd was in disbelief – and, from this point on, his performance resembled a swansong, a fond farewell to the Olympics and possibly even to competitive figure skating.
At the end of his performance, Hanyu turned to all four sides of the stadium and acknowledged the support with princely, extravagant bows before skating out with a lively flourish.
The judges scored him 99.62 points for the technical elements and 90.44 for presentation. However, with a two-point deduction, his free skate earned him 188.06 to add to his short programme of 95.15 and a total of 283.21 – the best to this point. But, with seven skaters still to perform, this lofty position would not last.
He left the ice to applause and also with tears among the spectators, who had greeted him like the hero he is for what he has brought to the ice in terms of grace and a level of athleticism rarely seen in any elite Olympian. Let’s not forget, also, the determination and motivation that has brought him back from injury, particularly in the build-up to PyeongChang 2018 and, to a lesser extent, ahead of Beijing.
There was not even the comfort of a barrage of Winnie the Pooh teddy bears – his favourite – cascading from the stands to the ice, as the pandemic preventions in Beijing forbade anyone to throw flowers or gifts to their skaters.
Hanyu hung on to top spot with three skaters to go, but Shoma Uno – PyeongChang 2018 silver medallist behind the master – overtook him with 293.00; so, too, did Winter Youth Olympic Games champion Yuma Kagiyama (310.05).
Finally, inevitably, Nathan Chen of the United States performed heroics to succeed Hanyu as Olympic champion with a huge score of 218.63 for the free skate and a golden total of 332.60.